Abstract:We approach group scheduling as an optimization problem and explore three dimensions of optimality: Time to reach agreement (T), effort spent in the process (E), and quality of the schedule (Q). We take the most common tool in used today -- Doodle -- as the starting point. We first generalize Doodle to B-Doodle ("Batched Doodle") and provide a procedure to derive B-Doodle*, the optimal mechanism from the T-E perspective. We then generalize Doodle to R-Doodle ("Ranked Doodle"), and compute R-Doodle*, the optimal mechanism from the Q perspective. We show in simulations that in many realistic situations Doodle is indeed inferior to B-Doodle* on the T-E dimensions and to R-Doodle* on the Q dimension, though only in the former case is the suboptimality substantial.

Bio:I am a second year PhD student in the Multi Agent Systems group. I received B.S. in computer science at Cornell University (class of 10), and then I worked as a research assistant for a year in the Database Group at Cornell University.